Engaging Ideas - 7/14/2017

Every week we curate stories and reports on complex issues. This week: Income inequality and the divide between the well-off and the stratospherically rich. More Americans are talking politics over drinks. How does the public view health care quality and value? A chart that shows you the probability of your job being automated. One congressional committee shows that bipartisanship still exists. Should voting be more fun?

AP-NORC Poll: Three-quarters in US say they lack influence (Associated Press)Three-quarters of Americans agree that people
like themselves have too little influence in Washington, rare unanimity across
political, economic, racial and geographical lines and including both those who
approve and disapprove of President Donald Trump, according to a new poll by
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Why The Trend Around Politics And Cocktails Is Exploding (Huffington Post)Healthcare sit-ins on Capitol Hill. Alleged
Russian interaction previous to the presidential election. Previous generations
may have been taught that conversation about such topics as religion or
politics while socializing were definitely taboo, but it seems that the new
trend toward frank discussion and exchange around all things statecraft is not
only smashing all previous etiquette norms but also shows no signs of slowing
down.

Engagement

Turning down the temperature on town halls (Christian Science Monitor)Town halls are a crucial tool in creating
connections between citizens and their lawmakers. But how do you mix civility
with passion? There are ways.

This Might Be the Best Idea for Turning Out More Voters in
U.S. Elections (New York Magazine)Presidential election years bring out more
voters, of course, but even the 2016 national election — featuring a reality TV
star and the first woman to win a major-party nomination — drew only slightly
more than half of voting-age Americans to the polls. So what changed? A
professor of political science at Columbia University thinks part of the
problem is that voting isn’t as fun as it once was.

The two standard college admission tests — the
SAT and the ACT — could be administered universally and free of charge to
students. That would reduce the administrative barriers to applying to college,
help identify talented disadvantaged children, and increase the likelihood they
will attend a college that matches their skills.

Higher Education & Workforce Development

Deep Partisan Divide on Higher Education (Inside Higher Ed)In dramatic shift, more than half of
Republicans now say colleges have a negative impact on the U.S., with
wealthier, older and more educated Republicans being least positive.

Find Out If Your Job Will Be Automated (Bloomberg)Wondering how vulnerable your job might be?
Type your occupation into the chart to see what the researchers think is the
probability of your job being automated.

Health Care

How 3 patient groups view healthcare quality: 6 things to
know (Becker's Hospital Review)The nonpartisan Public Agenda conducted a study
to gauge how three groups — people recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes,
people who recently had a joint replacement and women who recently gave birth —
view healthcare quality and value.

Health Plans That Nudge Patients to Do the Right Thing (New York Times)As health care costs rise, Americans are
increasingly on the hook to pay more for their care. This trend is more than
just annoying — asking consumers to pay more for everything deters many from getting the care they need. What would happen if, instead, health plans offered more
generous coverage of high-value care, but less generous coverage of those
services that provide little or no health benefit?